CVRCA

Good morning all,

Just a reminder that the CVRCA will hold its Fathers Day fun fly and cookout tomorrow. Grills will be provided, bring something to cook, something to share, and something to drink. Grills will be started shortly after noon. Remember also that we try to be good neighbors so not gasoline, 2 stroke, or noisy 4 stroke engines before noon on Sunday.

Hello fellow CVRCA members,

Fathers day is next Sunday.  You know what that means, sleeping in late, breakfast in bed... yeah right!
This upcoming Sunday, the CVRCA will hold the Fathers Day Cookout and Fun Fly.  More details will be coming shortly, but we hope that you can keep the time open and attend.  Plan on brining something for the grill, something to drink, something to share, and something to fly.  Spouses and girlfriends and encouraged to attend.  Students, this will be a fine day for training so it you plan on attending, let your instructor know so he can plan accordingly. 

Details will follow later in the week.

I want to wrap up this year’s air show with a few comments and observations. I believe it is safe to say that the event was an unqualified success. Considering the potential threat of bad weather, we had good public turnout and good participation from club members.

First I want to thank everyone who helped in the effort. It is always risky to name individuals for fear of leaving someone out, but I am going to do it anyway. If I miss you, it’s nothing personal, just poor memory. So, here we go, in no particular order:

Gene and Elizabeth Patzsch did a great job with concessions. I understand they sold out completely on the hot dogs.

Joe Radle entertained us all and kept the airways busy as PA announcer.

Timothy Litchfield set up his RC flight simulator and guided interested participants through its use.

Jimmy Booth and Tom Hunnicutt hawked the raffle tickets for us.

Mark Gryder helped set up the PA system and generator. His efforts included multiple trips to and from the field beginning at 7 am.

Jim Caldwell kept all the transmitters straight by managing the impound area.

With all this help I was able to concentrate on coordinating the flying schedule between the pilots and the PA announcer. That turned out to be a fulltime job.

Also thanks to everyone who flew. According to my records, we had a total of 10 pilots, most of whom flew multiple times. Here is the list that I have. I would be on the list myself but my bird was out of commission.

Tyler Britt
Jim Caldwell
Gary Cowden
Evan Cowden
Mark England
Matt Farrand
Mark Gryder
Fred Lindsay
Sam Richardson
Dean Shackelford with instructor Jimmy Booth

The workload was spread out pretty well. We had at least 10 club members share the duties, and I know of at least four others that would have contributed, had their schedules permitted. The project is a lot more fun when the workload is not forced on a select few.

Joe kept the PA system busy all day. That really added to crowd interest.

The pilot sign up sheets turned out to be invaluable. Some flyers looked at me funny when I asked them to fill it out, but it really did make things go smoothly. I was able to keep printed information in front of Joe so he could relate his announcements to specific pilot and equipment information.

Even with just 10 pilots we managed to keep something in the air almost continually. It would have been great to have 2-3 planes up at once, but with the limited flyers that was unrealistic. For me it was a great win just to avoid long periods of inactivity. With only a few exceptions we had at least one plane in the air at all times.

I discovered first hand how important it is to coordinate the flyers. It turned out to be a fulltime effort to line up the flyers and keep the paperwork in front of the PA announcer on a timely basis. I think that went well, even if I do say so myself.

The show was too long. Pilots and spectators alike were losing interest by about 2:30 pm. That tells me the next show should be limited to 3-4 hours.

We got lucky with the weather. Next time around we need a clearly published contingency for bad weather with a communication plan, should we need to put it into effect.

The raffle gets mixed reviews. It did generate some spectator interest, but I expect most tickets were purchased by club members. At any rate, the raffle was not very profitable, considering the club was on the hook for the cost of the raffle items. We need to revisit whether we want to continue the raffle, or perhaps alter it in some fashion.

It was really hard to see the simulator screen. If we do the simulator again, we need to find a way to block the light with some sort of sun shade.

To my knowledge we did not have anyone sign up for introductory flights. For me this was a disappointment. One of my primary goals for the air show was to generate interest in the sport that will lead naturally to the addition of new club members.

All in all I think the results were positive, and we can all look forward to making it even better next time around. Thanks again to everyone for a successfully event.